West Ham fan Jack Teague sees room for encouragement after Hammers take four points from Chelsea and Swansea

This past week has proved this topsy turvy Premier League season remains as unpredictable as ever, with West Ham picking up an unlikely four points but possibly at a cost.

Wednesday night’s heroics in the backs to the wall 0-0 draw with Chelsea showed we can still dig in and grind out results, particularly with a not quite so decimated defence at our disposal, although joey O’Brien’s dislocated shoulder added another injury we can ill afford.

But make no mistake, the Chelsea performance showed grit and determination, the kind of which we’ll need in abundance during the run in.

I’m also not going to go into any detail around the tedious attention seeking Jose Mourinho and his post-match comments where he criticised us for playing the same way he normally sets up away against the so-called big teams, even with the kind of creative talent at his disposal that West Ham can only dream of.

With the Noccerino and Boriello additions I didn’t expect much further action from the Hammers on the transfer front but the loan signing of Columbian full-back Pablo Armero was as pleasing as it was unexpected.

Named in the Seria A team of the year in 2010/11 he was all set to join Milan on loan but with Kevin Constant refusing to move the other way the deal was off, so we’ve ended up with a bit of a gem and I’m looking forward to him bringing some much-needed pace to our slow squad.

I’m not sure how realistic the bid for Greek striker Kostas Mitroglou was or whether it was more about making Fulham’s life difficult following the alleged tapping up of Ravel Morrison but I couldn’t help smiling at the sight of Johnny Heitinga waving to the Fulham fans, just after turning West Ham down.

I’m not so sure he’d have been thinking about Craven Cottage as his next destination when he made that comment.

So after the bonus point at Stamford Bridge, we needed to beat Swansea and this time we did but of course West Ham being West Ham it wasn’t straight forward.

I can only hope common sense will prevail over Chico Flore’s pathetic play acting which ensured Andy Carroll received a straight red for an, at worst, slightly silly swing of the arm which left the Spanish centre back writhing on the floor in apparent agony.

In the hour before West Ham fans were reminded just how important his combination with Nolan could still prove to be this season - with Carroll providing both assists for Nolan’s brace and bullying Swansea’s backline throughout.

Carroll showed for an hour that he’s the best chance we have of avoiding the drop - we can't lose him for another three games.